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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29367558">𝐔𝐧𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐝</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/7serName/pseuds/7serName'>7serName</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Walking Dead (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>A lot of mention of Glenn, Alexandria is destroyed in this universe btw, Beth Greene Lives, Beth and Carl kinda confess but I mean they don't really get together-, Beth is a little sarcastic in this fic, Beth trying to be nice to Negan, Carl Grimes Lives, Carl hating Negan, Gen, One-Eyed Carl Grimes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 05:14:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>12,240</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29367558</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/7serName/pseuds/7serName</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Beth, Negan, Carl, and Little Hershel get separated from the group by a storm. Four people who either don't know each other well, hate each other, or don't know if they even know each other anymore are now stuck together.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Beth Greene/Carl Grimes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. 𝘐 𝘈𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘋𝘢𝘺 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘚𝘢𝘪𝘥, '𝘚𝘰 𝘓𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘕𝘖𝘛 𝘋𝘰 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>THIS IS NOT A CEGAN FANFIC OR A BEGAN FANFIC THIS IS PURELY PLATONIC!!!!!<br/>thank you</p>
    </blockquote><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Negan, Beth, Carl and Little Hershel get separated from the group by a storm after the whisperer war. Carl snaps, only to have Little Hershel comfort him. Negan and Beth have a chit-chat about his past.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Maggie moved from person to person, wrapping her arms around old friends she hadn’t seen in a couple of years. Big smiles and cheerful greetings rang in the air as Maggie became the center of attention of their little group in the woods. It was the feel good treat that was needed after having defeated the Whisperers; the sight of an old comrade. Though It was a nice moment the group had to hurry as it started raining harder.</p><p>"We should probably get moving", Michonne commented, signaling Maggie to tell everyone to get on the move.</p><p>Everyone walked for a few miles, they had to find somewhere to stay, even if it was for the time being as the storm seemed to get worse. Carl was keeping an eye on Negan, even though he basically killed Alpha and helped a lot with killing the whispers, not to mention he seemed to have grown to have a connection with Daryl, Carol, Lydia, and even his little sister. Nevertheless Carl didn't trust Negan there was still something that gnawed at him that Negan would try something, so he didn't let his guard down while near him. Behind Carl was Little Hershel and Beth, the two have had more than an aunt-and-nephew relationship, infact Beth was more like a second mom if anything. The rain continued to pour, there was a sound of some people pulling out their weapons because the harsh sound of the rain would most likely attract walkers.</p><p>Negan, Carl, Beth and Hershel were at the back of the group. <em>That was a terrible mistake,</em> there was a loud lightning strike that hit one of the trees causing them to collapse, Carl immediately heard the sound yanking back Negan before the tree landed on him.</p><p>"You could have fucking died you idiot", Carl scolded</p><p>"I'll be careful next time kid", he retorted back sarcastically</p><p>Suddenly someone yelled, "Walkers!"</p><p>Carl quickly pulled out his knife, as did Negan and Beth put herself in front of Herschel as well pulling out her weapon. Even though they had gotten rid of a pretty big herd of walkers there were still plenty, Carl counted about 50 of them. The storm got worse and the ground beneath them started to get all muddy, skillfully Carl took out most of them gashing his blade in the walkers heads, Negan also was able to kill of a few walkers mostly making sure to protect Beth though she insisted she could do it herself, he still made sure no walkers came near Beth nor little Hershel.</p><p>It wasn't until after getting rid of all the walkers that swarmed them, that little Hershel asked, "Where's mom?". This catches the attention of the other three as they realize they've been separated from the group.</p><p>"MICHONNE! JUDITH! RJ!", Carl screamed, "We've gotta catch up with them!"</p><p>"MAGGIE!", Beth hollered. Negan noticed little Herschel was beginning to shiver, he took off his jacket and put it over the child to make sure the poor thing wouldn’t catch the cold or something.</p><p>"We don't even know where they are." Negan said, earning a very angry glare from Beth and Carl. "Screaming their names is just going to attract more walkers.",he snapped.</p><p>Beth let out a heavy sigh, "He's right, we need to find some place to stay," she said, grabbing Hershel’s hand.</p><p>"Alright! Quickly follow me!", Carl said as he began to run, Beth trailing behind him with Hershel and Negan following behind them. "There's a cabin over there!", Carl shouts pointing at the small house, quickly they reached the cabin and Carl pushes the door open, and water pours out of it, "The house is flooded", Carl yells, though it’s hard to hear him as the sound of lightning and hard raindrops make its difficult to hear what anyones saying unless they're yelling.</p><p>"It'll just have to do", Beth says pushing her way by. The house was completely flooded. The water reached to their calfs and they really had to push themselves through the water to make themselves move.</p><p>"There's stairs over there", Negan calls out, pointing at the steps leading to the second floor. The four of them make their way, until something grabs Beth's ankle and pulls her down. She lets out shriek before being yanked down, Carl quickly grabs her hand and is able to see that underneath the wooden floor was a basement and there was a walker trying to chomp off Beth’s foot, swiftly Carl stabbed the walker in the head causing it to let go, Negan picked Hershel up reaching the stairs to the second floor. "You go upstairs, find a room, alright", he tells Hershel, the little boy nods and hurriedly goes up the steps, Negan turns around to see Carl helping Beth walk, she seems injured. "Is she bit?", Negan asked, making his way to the two.</p><p>"No, I'm not", Beth says, "I just cut my bottom leg with the wood".</p><p>"Where's Hershel?", Carl questions</p><p>"He's upstairs", Negan informs</p><p>"Take Beth upstairs i'll go and see where Hershel is." Carl orders, making his way towards the stairway. Negan picks Beth up bridal style and follows behind Carl. "Herschel?", Carl calls</p><p>"I'm in here!", Hershel peeps sticking his head out of a room, "Is Aunt-Beth ok?" the little boy asks.</p><p>"Yes, I'm fine!", Beth says sweetly, limping towards him as she gets out of Negan's grasp.</p><p>"There's a bed here!", Hershel cheerily announces, taking Beth's hand and leading her to the room he found.</p><p>"How long do you think the storm is going to last?" Carl asks</p><p>"I don't know kid, let's just try to get some rest right now", Negan says walking towards one of the rooms.</p><hr/><p>Carl slowly opens his eyes, as he sits up from his very uncomfortable sleeping spot on the floor, Beth and Hershel were still resting on the bed, and Negan...</p><p>
  <em> Where the fuck is Negan? </em>
</p><p>Carl hurriedly gets himself up and walks down the hall and and practically slams open, causing Negan to jump out of his sleep, “Je-sus, kid haven’t you ever heard of fucking knocking?”, Negan groaned, sitting himself straight.</p><p>“Just get up, we have to get on the move” Carl snapped, “We have to find the rest of the group”, he said leaving the room.</p><p>“Beth, Beth. We need to wake up and get going”, he soothed, sitting down next to Beth and Hershel on the bed. </p><p>She groaned in complaint, “Five more minutes”</p><p>“Beth we need to go now.”, Negan said entering the room while putting oh his jacket</p><p>“Hey, she said she wanted five more minutes. She’s getting five more minutes”, Carl defended, shooting Negan a glare.</p><p>Negan gave him annoyed glance, “So you yell at me to wake up, but little miss princess here, can wake up whenever she wants?”, he rhetorically asked, gesturing at Beth who was still in slumber.</p><p>“Yes, that's exactly what I’m saying now shut the fuck up, you’re going to wake them up”, he snapped. </p><p>“I want to find mom”, Herschel spoke, as he straightened himself out of bed.</p><p>“We’ll find Maggie, and everyone else”, Carl said, patting him on the head.</p><p>Beth wearily got up, “Ok, maybe we should get going”.</p><p>The outside was humid and the ground was slippery and muddy.</p><p>“Wow, looks like the storm really did some damage”, Herschel noted, analyzing the broken trees/branches that were scattered all over the place.</p><p>“Well, we better hurry up to find the group, now c’mon”. Carl said walking ahead of everyone.</p><p>“Where exactly are we going?”, Herschel questioned </p><p>“We’re going to find everyone else”, Carl replied nonchalantly</p><p>“I know, but where is that?”, the little boy asked</p><p>He let out a slightly annoyed sigh, “I don’t know. We’ll find them though”, he nearly snapped</p><p>“How-”, Herschel's question was cut off as Beth placed her hand on his shoulder.</p><p>“We’ll find them”, she paused, “We just need to track them”, she spoke but her voice was unsure. Herschel became aware that he was probably being annoying, he looked at Carl. He had an emotion that was a mix of panic, anger, and annoyment, the fact that Hershel came to realize he was being a bother to Carl made him cringe slightly at his actions.</p><p>“Sorry”, his little voice murmured</p><p>This caused the three of them to look at Hershel, making Carl feel a wave of guilt wash over him, he bit the side of his cheek. “Let’s just get moving,” he said.</p><p>“Carl, let me talk to you”, Negan intervened</p><p>He looked at him oddly, “Why?”, Carl asked</p><p>“Just, c’mon”, he said making his way towards Carl, gesturing to Beth to give him and Carl some privacy. “Listen I get your fucking pissed at the situation we’re in here. But you can’t go snapping at a little kid.”, “I mean shouldn’t you be used this? You have two fucking younger siblings? They’re probably a pain in the ass every 4 minutes, aren’t they?”</p><p>“Ok, this is different. Is this the first time I’ve been separated from the group? No, but is this the first time I’m stuck with Maggie’s child and Beth? Yes, I know Beth and I want to protect her. I don’t know Hershel that well, but he’s Maggie’s son whom I also want to protect.” Carl reasoned</p><p>“Then whats the fucking problem?”, Negan spat</p><p>“Oh, this is my fucking problem”, Carl’s voice raises slightly, “ Firstly, I already suck at tracking and this storm didn’t help, its actually now harder to track. Secondly, we just finished a war, and I know you did a lot of shit to help but so did I, and I’m very exhausted! And reason three, four, five, and six are, YOU’RE FUCKING HERE!”, Carl yells</p><p>“Oh, so it's my goddamn fault you're in a pissed mood?! What the hell did I do?!”, Negan countered </p><p>“OH DON’T PLAY THE FUCKING VICTIM HERE!”, “YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’VE DONE!” Carl shouts</p><p>“Your a fucking little brat!”, Negan retorted</p><p>“Hey! Hey!”, Beth said coming in between the two of them who looked like they were ready to rip each other's throats out, “We aren’t going to get anything solved if we argue with each other!” She scolded, scowling at both of them.</p><p>Carl huffed, <strong>“I asked for one good day! And god said, ‘Let’s not do that!”</strong>, he yelled sarcastically, there was a crunch of leaves behind them causing the 3 them to look to see Herschel standing there, a very frightened look on his face.</p><p>
  <em> Boy, today was going to be awkward </em>
</p><hr/><p>After the argument emerged between the three, they had been silent the whole way, no one bothered to say anything. In Fact they really didn’t know where they were headed they just kept walking forward. Soon after walking for a good 7 hours the four reach a deserted mall.</p><p>“Maybe we should stay there for the night”, Beth commented, looking at the mall.</p><p>Carl replied, “Yeah”, he made his way towards the mall picking up the pace in his footsteps. </p><p>Entering the mall, Carl signaled everyone to stay put, though Negan offered to go in there with him, in case there were any walkers. Carl insisted that everyone stayed put. Ten minutes passed, and Carl came out of the mall covered in walker blood, telling everyone that it was clear now and that they could come in.</p><p>“Wow”, Herschel said in amazement, “This place is huge” he commented.</p><p>“We need to find a place to sleep”, Carl noted walking up the escalators</p><p>“It's a little early isn’t it? It’s still day out”, Beth called</p><p>“Well I'm exhausted, you three can do whatever you want. Just let me sleep.”</p><p>“I guess we’ll let him be”, Beth said, turning to face Negan</p><p>“Yeah, I guess”</p><p>Carl had entered a mattress store, setting his weapon on the bed, he was about to lay down but felt as if he wasn't alone, he turned around to see Hershel.</p><p>"Hershel, why aren't you with Beth?"</p><p>"She said I could wander", he answered, plopping himself on the bed.</p><p>"Hershel, i'm really tired", "I don't want to talk to anyone right now".</p><p>"I just wanted to apologize"</p><p>"Hey, you don't need to apologize", Carl smiled weakly, "I remember when I was a kid, and all this apocalypse thing was just starting, I was a really annoying kid". he grins.</p><p> </p><p>Hershel giggles, "What was life like back then?"</p><p>"Hm?"</p><p>"How was everything, before everything? Before the dead came back?"</p><p>"Boring", he answered, sitting himself next to Hershel, "There was school, and cleaning the house, and keeping up with grades", he turned to face Hershel, "It was awful", he said dramatically, Hershel smiles.</p><p>"How did you meet my mom?"</p><p>"Ah, you see I was shot", Carl began</p><p>Hershel's eyes widened, "Mom shot you?!"</p><p>Carl laughed, "What? no! Someone else from her family shot me, her father, who you are named after, he saved me".</p><p>Hershel's attention was glued on Carl’s ‘adventure’ as he called it at the farm, he explained what happened, though leaving out some details that he felt that Hershel didn’t really need to know about. </p><hr/><p>
  <em> It was getting late </em>
</p><p>“So, Herschel, he’s a good kid”, Negan spoke attempting to break the very awkward tension that was between him and Beth, she hummed in agreement. </p><p>They had been walking beside one another throughout the mall but they didn’t say anything. If Negan was being honest he had completely forgotten that Beth existed until recently. She wasn’t at the lineup when he killed her brother-in-law but he’s more than a hundred percent sure that Maggie has bitched about him while being with Beth, and knowing that she probably has made this situation even more unsettling.</p><p> </p><p>“You feel bad, don’t you?”, Beth muttered</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“You feel bad about killing Glenn, and Abraham, and Sasha, and everyone else right?”, she questioned, “But mostly about killing Glenn”, she remarks.</p><p>“Ah, so we are no longer being subtle I see”, he says, “And yes I do regret my decisions of killing Glenn, and Abraham, and Sasha, and everyone else, and mostly Glenn.”</p><p>“Because?”</p><p>“Hershel.”</p><p>“Right”, “Do you expect Maggie to forgive you after helping with the whispers?”</p><p>“Does she?”</p><p>“Pretty sure the answer is no”</p><p>“Do you forgive me?”</p><p>Beth opened her mouth to respond, but quickly shut it. “I don’t know”</p><p>“How can you not fucking know? It's your opinion make up your mind”</p><p>“It’s complicated”</p><p>“It can’t be that complicated, clearly the kid forgives me.”, he grins</p><p>“Hershel doesn’t know.”</p><p>Negan stares at Beth, eyebrows raised, “Maggie never told him?”</p><p>“Maggie told him a ‘bad man’ killed him, but she never said you”.</p><p>“What does the kid think about the ‘bad man’”, he asks, sitting down on a chair in the food court aisle.</p><p>“He asked, ‘if the bad man get what he deserved’”</p><p>“What did Maggie say?”</p><p>“She didn’t answer.”</p><p>Negan slumps in his chair, “So she forgives me, a tiny-bit?” he smiles.</p><p>“Maybe, or maybe she didn't want her son to think he needed to find who you are and attempt to kill you”, Beth sneered, a mockingly smile growing on her face.</p><p>Negan’s smile flattens, “What if I show the kid, that ‘hey i’m good’ so when he finds out i’m the guy who killed his dad, he won’t try to fucking slaughter me?”</p><p>“Hey, do what you want, but if you found out someone killed your dad and they were simply bribing you so you wouldn’t kill them, <em> would you still kill them </em>?”</p><p>“That's not a fair comparison. My dad was a fucking ass, and apparently Glenn was goddamn angel,” Negan spat, slightly cringing that he had actually used his name.</p><p>“Well there's your answer”, Beth said, throwing her hands in the air. “Glenn was a great guy, you killed him. Hershel may not kill you but he’ll most likely hold a grudge against you like my sister.”</p><p>Negan stares at the floor, “Well, I guess it’s my karma”, Beth nodded in agreement.</p><p>“However!”, Beth began, “You are at least trying to redeem yourself! And that, is already pretty good compared to other bad guys I've ran into”, she smiled. “Now c’mon let's go find Hershel and Carl and sleep, we need to find our way back to the group tomorrow!”</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. 𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘐𝘴 𝘓𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘈 𝘉𝘰𝘹 𝘖𝘧 𝘊𝘩𝘰𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴. 𝘐 𝘍𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘰𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Hershel grows closer to Negan much to Beth’s chagrin. Carl is able to find some tracks that may help them find their way back to the others.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Chapter is pretty short</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The morning began with Little Hershel waking up, much to his surprise he sees Negan, <em> leaving? </em> He gets himself up and trails behind Negan making sure to be as quiet as possible. As he follows Negan he sees that they’ve arrived at a lake.</p><p>“What are you doing?”Herschel asks, causing Negan to slightly jump.</p><p>“Kid, you fucking scared me”, Negan chuckled, as he crouched down near the lake, “I’m getting water”, he responded, as Hershel walked next to him.</p><p>He mentioned nonchalantly, “I didn’t mean to scare you, I thought you were ditching us.”</p><p>“Kid, I would never”, he said, as he gathered some water in a cup. “Carl, would probably hunt me down and kill me”, Negan jokes, causing Hershel to giggle softly.</p><p>“Yeah, he would probably do that. Why does he hate you so much?”</p><p>“I don’t think he hates me” Negan pauses, “No, scratch that. The kid would trade me for an expired glass of milk.”</p><p>“Yesterday, Carl told me some things about how life was before the apocalypse”, Herschel said, plopping himself down next to Negan, “How was life like for you back then?”</p><p>Negan kinda taken back that Hershel would show any interest in his past life, not that he’s complaining. “It was bad, somewhat. Though looking back at it I guess everything was boring back then.”</p><p>“Carl said that too. He said everything was boring before this.”</p><p>“Well kids not wrong, having the dead roam around really keeps you on your toes.”, he sneered </p><p>Hershel’s quiet for a minute.</p><p>“Have you lost anyone?”</p><p>Negan stayed silent, took a deep breath, “My wife.”</p><p>“Was she bit?”</p><p>“She died before the apocalypse”He spoke, getting himself up and closing the water bottle.</p><p>“Oh, that sounds bad..”, he condoles</p><p>“I’m just glad she didn’t have to see how the world turned to be”</p><p>“The world was better back then, huh?”</p><p>“Not really, the world sucked before all of this. See this is how it is, <strong>‘Life is like a box of chocolates,</strong> and <strong>I-</strong>”, he gestures at himself, “<strong>fucking hate chocolate</strong>.”</p><p>Hershel gave him an odd look, “I thought it was ‘life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get’”.</p><p>“Yeah but no matter what you get, it's still fucking terrible.” </p><p>“Ohh”</p><p>“We should probably head back to Beth and Carl, wouldn’t want them to think you're lost”, he said as he walked his way back to their little camp.</p><p>“And to think you ran off”, he joked, trailing behind him.</p><p>He chuckles, “Yeah that too.”</p><hr/><p>“Ah, so the two love birds are still sleeping”, Negan remarks, as he approaches the camp followed by Hershel.</p><p>Carl shoots him a scowl, “Where were you two?”, he asks, as he gets himself up.</p><p>“We went to get water!”, Little Hershel chirps, heading towards Beth.</p><p>“What are you doing to him?”Carl whisper yells, stepping closer to Negan.</p><p>“Hey, I’m not doing anything”, he says, putting his hands in a surrender.</p><p>Carl gives him an annoyed look, “If anything happens to him-”</p><p> </p><p>“Are we going to get going or what?”, Beth tiredly questions, taking a hold of Hershel's hand.</p><p>“Yeah, we are”, he responds, turning to Beth.</p><p>“You were saying?”, Negan grins</p><p>“Let’s get moving”, Carl retorts at him, as he makes his way to Beth and Hershel.</p><p>The four of them have been walking for a few hours now. Herschel had made his way to Negan and was asking more questions about Negan’s life before the apocalypse. Carl stayed behind with Beth, who was still sleepy.</p><p>“Wait, so you were a high school coach?”Herschel asked in surprise. </p><p>“You seem a little astonished by that”, he comments</p><p>“I just find hard to believe”, he mumbles</p><p>“Why so?”</p><p>“Well, you”, he turns to face Negan, “You have a, well a.”, Herschel pauses, “You cuss a lot.”</p><p>He laughs slightly, “Yeah, I do”</p><p>Beth was watching them from a distance, a little uneasy of the situation. She had promised her sister she would protect little Hershel with her life and she felt that it was kind of stupid leaving Hershel with Negan. </p><p>“We should get something to eat”, Carl says, breaking the silence between the two.</p><p>“Oh. Yeah we should probably do that.”, Beth stays quiet for a minute. “it's odd”</p><p>“What is?”</p><p>“I haven’t seen any animals or any walkers”, she says, “Why do you think that is?”</p><p>Carl shrugs, “We’ll just have to find some fruit or something”. “Hey guys!”, he calls Hershel and Negan.</p><p>“What?”, Negan shouts</p><p>“We need to make a camp for right now”, Carl says, approaching Negan and Hershel. “Me and Beth and going to look for some food.” Carl says, taking his knife out of his pocket.</p><p>“I don’t really think I should-”</p><p>Carl cuts her off, “We’ll be back in a few minutes. Negan you prepare a fire”, Carl demands, as he grabs Beth’s hand walking, leaving Negan and Hershel alone. </p><p>“What do you think that was about?” Herschel asks, turning to Negan. “I think he’s mad again” he mutters, turning his gaze to Beth and Carl, who are now deeper in the forest.</p><p>“That, or they’re both fucking”, Negan mentioned nonchalantly</p><p>“huh?”</p><p>Negan chuckles, “I’m just playing with you kid, I highly doubt Carl would fucking do that.”, he says, crouching down to prepare the fire. </p><p> </p><p>“What was that about?!”, Beth retorts</p><p>“About what?”, Carl asks, as he looks through berries that the two found in the woods. </p><p>“You just left Hershel and Negan alone!”</p><p>“So?”</p><p>“What do you mean, ‘so?’ What if he does something!”</p><p>“Listen”, Carl began, turning himself face towards Beth. “I don’t really trust Negan either-”</p><p>“Then why did you leaven Hershel with him?!”</p><p>“Let me finish”, he interrupts. “Even though I don't trust Negan that well, I doubt he’ll do anything to him.”</p><p>“Yeah, I also doubt he will do anything but..”</p><p>“But what? Negan is obviously trying to get Maggie to forgive him; he'll probably do anything Hershel asks him to do.”, he mentions grabbing a bunch of berries.</p><p>“Weren't you scolding Negan earlier because he went with Hershel to get water?”, she mentions</p><p>“Yeah, but that was mostly cause I just woke up and I was in a bad mood”, he grins</p><p>Beth scoffs light, “Alright, we’ve gathered some food, we should probably head back.”, she says, walking in front of Carl.</p><p>“You got that fire ready yet?”Beth asks as she and Carl reach their camping spot for the place.</p><p>“No, not yet-”, Negan says, attempting to make a fire out of two sticks.</p><p>“Let me do it.” Carl intervened, grabbing two rocks and sitting himself on the ground. Carl starts to hit the two rocks together, and soon a spark appears and he’s able to start a fire. “Now was that so hard?” he mocked giving Negan a sneer grin. </p><p>“No need to be fucking cocky”, he retorts, standing up. </p><p>Hershel screamed causing the three to look back seeing Hershel running at them. Four walkers behind him, immediately Beth pulled out her weapon and ran after the walkers, as did Carl to kill them. Once the walkers were killed  Beth was shot a glance at Hershel about to scold him for not being in her sight, but is immediately surprised when she sees him cowering behind Negan.</p><p>Her eyes widened, she hurried over to Hershel and put herself in front of him and Negan. “I need to talk to you”, she remarked, looking at Negan, “Hershel you can, go and stay with Carl”.</p><p>As Hershel made his way to Carl, he told Hershel to follow him to give Beth and Negan some space.</p><p>“What was that?”, she shouts</p><p>“What was what?”<br/>“Oh, don’t play innocent, you're trying to make him think you’re the ‘good guy’ right?!”</p><p>“Listen i’m not trying to do anything”, he snaps, turning away from Beth</p><p>“You shouldn’t be trying to get closer to Hershel.”</p><p>“What's wrong with me getting close to the kid? He thinks I have an interesting backstory. Let him be.”</p><p>“Oh, and are you going to tell what you’ve done?! That you’ve killed his father!?” she retorts putting herself in front of him.</p><p>Negan’s silent.</p><p>“I told Maggie I would protect Herschel”, she states</p><p>“Nothing has happened to him.” he murmurs</p><p>“Yeah, but if she finds out he's closer to you she's going to brutally murder you in every way possible!”</p><p>She pauses, “Wait. Are you bribing him?! That’s exactly what I told you not to do!”,She shouts</p><p>“Woah, woah I’m not bribing anyone. The kid just asked me questions about my life and I answered.”</p><p>She huffs turning her gaze to the floor, “I just don’t want you to do anything to him.” She mutters</p><p>“I would never hurt him”, “ What makes you think I would?” He questioned</p><p>“I don’t know...revenge I guess? Cause Maggie beat you and she almost killed you and-“</p><p>“Maggie had the chance to kill me and she didn't.” Negan intervenes “If I hurt her kid she would then probably kill me”. “ Plus I like that kid” he mentions</p><p>“How strange” Beth says “You make better friends with kids than with people actually your age” she snorts</p><p>“I guess kids just like me” he grins</p><p>Beth retorts back with, "Yeah cause they're mature kids, and you're an immature adult thats why."</p><hr/><p>“What are we doing here?” Hershel asks as he picks up a stick from the ground</p><p>“We’re giving Beth and Negan some space, she’s probably kicking his ass right now”, he laughs</p><p>“Why does Beth not like Negan? I think he’s nice”</p><p>“Your mom doesn’t like him and she has a reason to do I guess Beth-“</p><p>“Why doesn’t mom like Negan?”</p><p>Carl’s silent, <em> shit he wasn’t supposed to say that </em>. “Personal things” he stutters</p><p>“Oh”</p><p>Carl turns away from Hershel, analyzing the ground. <em> Tracks? </em> he follows them leaving Hershel behind until he reaches a path in a forest. He’s actually relieved to see a path, for about three days the four of them had just been walking in the forest not really knowing where to go and the storm had really made it difficult to find any clues as to where to find the others.</p><p>“Hey!”, Hershel yells as he makes his way towards Carl, “What did you find?”</p><p>“I think I just found a way back to the others” Carl grins</p><p>“Really?!” Hershel beams “Let's get back to Negan and Beth!”</p><p>Both of them hurried themselves to tell Negan and Beth the news.</p><p>Hershel shouts, “Guys we need to get going!”</p><p>Beth was already resting, but Negan was still by the fire. “Can’t we wait till the morning to get moving?” Negan yawns</p><p>“No, we need to get moving now if we are to catch up!”, Carl says, making his way towards Beth.</p><p>Beth annoyingly groans, “I can’t get a good sleep can I” she rhetorically asks</p><p>“Carl found a path that could lead us back to the ground!” Hershel beams</p><p>This causes Beth to perk up, she pushes herself off the ground to take a hold of Hershel's hand, “Well, forget sleep let’s find the others!” She shouts at Carl and Negan.</p><p>“Yeah, we’re coming!”, Carl responds jogging to catch up with the two followed by Negan behind him.</p><p>
  <em> Let’s hope nothing will knock them off track </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. 𝘐'𝘮 𝘈 𝘕𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯, 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘴 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘐'𝘮 𝘚𝘰 𝘚𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘥</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Beth starts to break down, so Carl talks with her. Negan spends time with Hershel.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm kinda proud about this chapter-</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>How long have they’ve been walking for? Who knows. All what Beth’s mind was fixated on was when will be the next time she'll be able to sleep. They’ve been on the road for what felt like weeks. She glared at Carl’s direction who was also wearily walking, her gaze softens as she sees his tired look on his face.Was she kinda mad at Carl for leading to a path that seems that they have been walking for days? Yes, but he was only trying to help. His intentions were good, but she felt so frustrated. Frustrated that she might not see her sister again, or Daryl, or anyone else. Most importantly she felt frustrated that she thinks she can’t protect Hershel, the little boy was on her back. He's been sleeping for a few hours. She can’t protect Hershel, she sucks at it, and she feels like she's being a burden to Carl, Beth stops at her tracks, her thoughts got the best of her, she was crying, she choked out a sob, which caused Negan and Carl to stop and look back at her.</p><p>“I can't do this anymore!”Beth managed to utter, surprisingly Beth’s current crying didn’t even phase Hershel as he was still sleeping peacefully on her back. “I can't,” she mumbled.</p><p>“Beth, we've been walking for four days, we’re almost there.”, Carl said exhaustingly, his eyes looked like they might close at any second.</p><p>“Exactly!”, Beth yelled, still in a low voice to keep the little boy from awakening. “We’ve been walking for four days! And it feels like we’ve been walking in circles!”, she basically spat out the sentence.</p><p>“Beth you need to keep yourself together”, the one-eyed boy said, making his way to Beth. The girl removed Hershel from her back and gave him to Carl, then she just dropped herself to the floor.</p><p>“Oh just leave me here, let the walkers eat me I don’t care anymore.”, She said, laying herself on the dirt ground.</p><p>Carl and Negan exchanged confused looks, Carl had to admit this was something new he didn’t know how to deal with. Beth was the optimistic one, the cheerful one and it felt weird that she was on the floor. Her hope gone, and tears streaming down her face. It made him feel guilty, “Beth you know I’m just going to leave you here, right?”</p><p>“Why not? I’m just a burden. Leave me here”, Beth said her hand covering her face.</p><p>“If anyone here is a burden, that's Negan”, Carl said, earning a what-the-hell-did-I-do? Look from Negan. “We need to find a place to stay for the night”, Carl said.</p><p>“It's too early”, Beth said, hand still on her face.</p><p>“You obviously are tired. We all are, we’ll crash for the night and continue tomorrow”, Carl remarked, his voice still filled drowsy.</p><p>“No!”, Beth said, quickly trying to heave herself up, “I’m fine, I’m great! Let's please find our way back to the others!”, Beth beamed, wiping the tears off her face.</p><p>Carl gave her a pity smile, “Beth stop pushing yourself. We’re going to find a place to stay for the night and that's final.”, the boy wasn’t suggesting he was demanding, which caused Beth to roll her eyes at him.</p><p>“Fine”, she mumbled.</p>
<hr/><p>It seems as though luck was on their side, at least that's what Beth tells herself as she lays on the wood floor, of the very teeny-tiny shack they had found. “Better than nothing”, she muttered.</p><p>“Hey”, Carl greeted, entering the shack.</p><p>“Where's Hershel?!”, Beth practically shouted</p><p>“Calm down, calm down. He’s with Negan.” Carl said, plopping himself next to Beth on the hard floor.</p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>“Beth, what's wrong?”Carl asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.</p><p>She's silent for a bit. She knows what's bothering her, that she's doing something wrong. But what she can’t think of is what it is. Well that's kind of a lie, Negan. That's what's bothering her. She feels like she has failed her sister, Glenn, and Hershel. She feels like she's failed for letting Maggie’s number one nemesis look after Hershel as if he wasn’t the one who murdered his father, she feels like she's failed because she's letting Hershel believe that Negan has done no wrong.</p><p><strong>“I’m a nice person, thats why I’m so stupid”</strong>, she blankly said</p><p>“Beth you’re not stupid”</p><p>“Yes I am!” she defended, “Listen, remember the governor?” </p><p>Carl is a little taken back by the question, “Yes” he responds, his voice unsure as to where this is going. “What about him?”</p><p>“He killed my dad, and I don’t think I could have ever forgave him.”</p><p>“You're comparing Negan to the Governor?”</p><p>“Yes! Think about it Carl, if Negan or the governor had killed your father, would you have forgave them?”</p><p>Carl’s face drops at the mention of his father, causing Beth to feel regret for mentioning him. “No. I probably wouldn’t have” he mumbled. “But you have to keep in mind my dad gave the governor a chance to redeem himself but he still fucking countinued.” Carl cussed, his face looking towards his hands on his lap. The both of them are silent, Beth wanted to make a remark but she knows it would probably tick Carl off and he would lash out at her and that was the last thing she wanted right now.</p><p>But what she's thinking, it's true.</p><p>If Negan had killed Rick, instead of Glenn or Abraham, he would’ve never forgave him. She doubts that he forgives him right now either, but Carl would have killed Negan if he had done something to his dad.</p><p>“I’m sorry”, Beth whispered, “I shouldn't have started talking about that.”</p><p>“No, no it's fine. We’re all a little sleep deprived. We’re just tired right now.” Carl said, a slight apologetic smile forming on his face. “Why don’t you sleep?” he recommended, gesturing at the bed.</p><p>“I can’t”, she answered nonchalantly </p><p>“Alright, why don’t we talk about something else?”, he offers</p><p>Beth crosses her legs, placing her hands on her lap, “Alright, lets talk” she says.</p>
<hr/><p>Negan didn’t hate Hershel, but the fact that Hershel was comfortable chatting with him about literally ANYTHING made him drown in guilt, especially since the back of his head kept screaming at him that he killed his father. This guilt was bizarre, has Negan felt bad before because he had killed all those people? Yeah, sure. However this was more than that, at least Judith had known that Negan had been the one to cause terror to her father and his group but Herschel didn’t know squat.</p><p>“What do you think?” The little voice chriped</p><p>“I’m sorry, what?”</p><p>Herschel huffed, “About dinosaurs!”</p><p>“Kid, dinosaurs were dead way before you fucking existed.”</p><p>“I know but the thought of them once roaming the Earth sounds so…”</p><p>“So what?”</p><p>“So far”, The little boy said.</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“I mean even before this, dinosaurs were dead, and that makes it seems so far”</p><p>Negan wasn't sure he understood what the hell Hershel was talking about but nonetheless he still nodded in response. The two were silent for a bit, but then Hershel put himself in front of Negan asking a question, “Why does my mom hate you?”</p><p>
  <em> What-  </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Hadn’t Beth said he didn’t know? </em>
</p><p>“Who told you that?” Negan asked</p><p>“Carl, I remember he said mom doesn't like you and she has a reason for it.” Hershel folded his arms “What's the reason?”</p><p>“Same reason why everyone hates me, I’m just so fucking charming everyones jealous”, he jokes, though Hershel still seems serious, he lets Negan dismiss the question much to his relief. If Hershel were to find out that he killed his dad, well, he didn’t even want to think how that would escalate. </p>
<hr/><p>“Did you have a hard time taking care of Judith?”, Carl asked</p><p>Beth straightened herself up on the wood floor, “Surprisingly no, I think Hershel was more the problematic type.”, “Ok, I’ve told you a lot about me during the prison, tell me what you did.”</p><p>“I mean the time at the prisons was kinda difficult. I don’t really have many memories from there.” Carl replied</p><p>“Well tell me something from your time at the prison”, she scooted closer to him, “one thing, please?”</p><p>“Well”, Carl began. “I actually had a crush on you.”</p><p>Beth nearly jumps from her spot, <em> Carl? A crush? On her?? </em>. “Really?” She asks, her voice slightly higher in pitch.</p><p>“Yeah, you know it's one of those silly crushes people develop when they're teens.” He says.</p><p>“I just find it odd you had a crush on me.”, She mutters.</p><p>“How come?”</p><p>“Well I mean before the apocalypse,” Beth said, “In school boys rarely had a crush on me.”, She mentioned</p><p>Carl gave a I-don't-believe-you look, “What, why?”</p><p>Beth giggled, “My sister, I guess since she was prettier than me, people liked her more.”</p><p>“Well I think you're prettier than Maggie.”, Carl said, causing Beth to look at him, her face turning red at the sudden compliment. </p><p>“T-Thanks”, she managed to say, she could feel her face getting redder. It’s been so long since someone has complemented her she forgot how her heart would flutter due to the nice words. But was she happy that someone complimented her, or was she happy because <em> Carl </em>complimented her? I mean her and Carl only have a four year difference Carl is 22 and Beth herself is 26-</p><p>“How long have you two been fucking talking?”Negan's voice said, causing Beth and Carl to look over at Negan who was at the door, Hershel beside him. “It's nearly dark out.”, He said with a very exhausted look on his face.</p><p>“Sorry” Beth apologized, “I guess we should probably rest”</p><p>Carl, Herschel nodded in agreement. The shack was small and there was only one bed, they let Hershel take the bed while the other three just had to find comfort on the floor. </p>
<hr/><p>The day surprisingly awoke with a fairy tale theme, Herschel swore he had heard birds that were tweeting the most angelic melody he had heard. To his surprise he had woken up before the three other adults, Negan was sprawled on the floor which caused Herschel to tilt his head slightly, wondering how in the world he could sleep in the odd position. Beth and Carl were in a corner, Carl was sleeping sitting up, his head was dropped, that wasn’t going to be good for his neck, Beth had her head laying on Carl’s lap and her legs were bent pulled close to her.</p><p>Herschel studied the two how they looked so peaceful, oddly it made him think of his dad and his mom. He wondered if they ever slept in odd positions holding each other close, they probably have but Hershel tries to keep any question about his father to himself. Though his mom seems to smile when talking about him, her eyes always look watery as she's on the verge of tears and Hershel wouldn’t want to be the reason as to why his mother cries.</p><p>
  <em> He hopes they’re able to find everyone else soon. </em>
</p>
<hr/><p>The day has been going well, Carl thought to himself. They crashed the night at a very tiny shack and they've been on the move for a few hours. To his surprise Hershel isn't with Negan, instead he’s now talking Beth’s ear off. He chuckles at the two, Beth seems to look better she doesn’t seem worried nor pale, yesterday the poor girl was so hopeless she looked ill. Glancing back at Negan, Carl feels like there's something on his mind but he can't quite put his finger on it.</p><p>“What are you thinking about?”, Carl asked, causing Negan to be cut from whatever he was thinking of.</p><p>“Nothing”, he breathes out.</p><p>Carl squints his eye at him, “I don’t believe you”, he crosses his arms walking beside him. “C’mon just tell me.”</p><p>“Maggie and Hershel”.</p><p>Carl’s mouth shapes into an “O”, <em> is that why he's been so nice to Hershel? Because he still wants Maggie to forgive him?. </em>Carl let out an annoyed sigh, “You need to stop with that.” he said, wiping the sweat from his forehead. </p><p>Negan's eyebrows raise, “What do you mean?”</p><p>“The kid doesn't even know that you're the one who killed his father.” “So stop trying to get some sort of approval from him. You think that if he forgives you Maggie will forgive you.”</p><p>Negan scoffs, “Beth told me the same thing.”</p><p>“Is that what you're doing?”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“Then what the hell are you doing?”</p><p>“What's wrong with talking with Hershel?”</p><p>“There's nothing wrong with it, but Maggie-”</p><p>“Yeah, yeah Beth said the same thing, ‘when Maggie finds out she’ll kill me’.”</p><p>“Yet you still talk with him?”, Carl questioned</p><p>“The kid talks to me, and I just can’t find the will to say, ‘kid stop talking to me’.”</p><p>Carl sighed, <em>Herschel’s oblivion would most likely cause a dispute between Negan and Maggie.</em></p><p>Carl stopped in his tracks when he heard rustling in the forest, off the path they were on.</p><p>“What's wrong?”Beth asked, turning around to see Carl staring in the forest.</p><p>The four of them had all stopped, trying to listen intently as the forest grew quiet, only the sound of wind whooshing the trees and the sound of very faint crepitate noise on the left side of the trail.</p><p> </p><p>That's when Carl saw them.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Shit. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Walkers. </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. 𝘐'𝘮 𝘕𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘛𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘔𝘰𝘮 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The group is attacked by walkers, and another group. Hershel believes he's not strong enough for the world, and wants to prove that he can fight. Beth asks Negan what he intends to do about Maggie.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>uwu enjoy</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The walkers came out of nowhere. Carl drew out his knife and stabbed the first three but looking deeper into the forest, there were more than three.</span>
  <em>
    <span> Shit, another herd? Are you fucking kidding me?! </span>
  </em>
  <span>He gritted his teeth at the realization, “We need to go!”, Carl shouted signaling for the others to follow him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How much did you see?”, Negan hollered</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don't know, nor do I care to find out”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They ran for a few minutes until they realized they had no idea where to. The trail was a dead end, leading to the forest where the path cut off. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Fuck.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Carl cussed under his breath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’re going to have to enter back the forest”, Beth said, looking back at the walkers who were getting closer. There was no time to argue the three adults pulled out their weapons as they made their way into the woods. As they were walking the groaning of the dead became fainter and fainter, telling them that they had separated themselves from the horde that was behind them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now what?”, the little boy asked, gripping tightly to Beth’s hand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know-”, Carl cut himself off, there was a soft moan that filled the silence in the forest. “Everyone keep close” he said. The four looked around to spot where the noise was coming from. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shit!”, Beth yelled a walker had somehow thrown itself at her with her realizing, she pushed Hershel out of the way trying to stab the walker, but it had some sort of metal cap protecting his head, she continued to try to stab the walker, Carl was able to pull the walker off, and started to push his knife through the walkers throat cutting it off. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stab it in the head!”, Negan said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t!”, Carl retorted dropping the walker head on the ground, “Who the fuck would put a metal cap on a walker?!” Carl cusses, stepping away from the dead’s head. “Are you alright?”, Carl asks, his attention turning to Beth who was being hugged by Hershel. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah”, she responds</span>
</p><p>
  <span>More groans of walkers emerged causing the four to snap their heads where the noise was coming from, Carl’s eye widened seeing that a small group of walkers had armor on them, it would be impossible to kill them with the weapons they had.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ve got to get moving”, Negan spoke, he began walking, having little Hershel trot behind him, followed by Beth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carl responded with, “Yeah”. </span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>Carl was walking besides Hershel, and Beth and Negan were slightly ahead of them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“When did you learn how to protect yourself?”Herschel asked, turning to Carl. “It was at the farm right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carl nods in response. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I want to learn.” The little boy states.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carl raised his eyebrow at him, “Maggie hasn’t taught you yet?”. Herschel shakes his head, “Well I could teach you. But not right now, we don’t have time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Herschel huffs, he looks ahead and sees that there isn’t anywhere exactly to camp. They can’t take a break right now, he wants to learn to fight though. Has he killed walkers? Yes, but it was really a lot of improvising, he doesn’t really know how to use a gun, or a knife. He knows somewhat how to use a gun. He's never held one before, but he’s read plenty of books so has a good idea on how to, he's sure he could probably do it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wonders why people don’t trust him with weapons. He’s seen that Judith even has her own sword, the boy frowns at his thoughts. “Am I not strong?”, Herschel asks, causing Carl to look at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, who told you that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No one told me, but no one trusts me with weapons so it makes me think that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, when I was at the farm people didn't really trust any of the guns”, Carl mumbles. “That didn't make me think I was weak, it's just that you're a kid and they want to keep you safe.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Judith knows how to use a weapon.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She's older than you.”, “Do you at least know how to use a weapon?”, Carl asks</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve read how to.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carl lets out a sigh, “When we find the others I'll teach you.” Hershels face lightens up, “Until, we find the others. I have to ask Maggie if she's ok with it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Herschel slightly frowns at the mention of having to ask his mom, it's not that he hates her for not letting him, but she's always been so overprotective. But he can see why.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Maybe if he showed Carl, he could in fact protect himself he wouldn’t be so reluctant to teach him.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <em>
    <span>The day was coming to an end, the sun was coming down, the clouds were keeping the moon’s light from showing. It was nearly pitch black. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>This isn’t good</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Beth thought to herself pushing the branches out of the way. “Guys what do we do?” she asks, turning to face the three. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think I see a place over there that isn’t so crowded with branches”, Negan says pointing at a spot in the woods. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carl squints his eye, as he walks to where Negan pointed at “It’ll just have to do right now”, he says.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The four were able to make a small space for their camp, Carl said that they probably shouldn’t light a fire as it would most likely bring walkers. He suggested he would keep watch, but Beth countered saying she and Negan would. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright do what you want”, Carl said, laying himself on the dirt ground. “If anything happens just yell.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Carl we have this under control.”, Beth said, pulling out her knife.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carl lifted his hands in a surrendering manner, “Hey, I’m just saying”, he yawns. Carl made himself comfortable on the floor, and closed his eye.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aren’t you going to sleep?”, Beth questioned gesturing towards the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not sleepy”, Herschel replied, sitting on a rock. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well I want you to sleep. Because we’re going to be walking a lot, and I don’t want you passing out.”, Beth said, giving a slightly scolding look at him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine.”, the boy said, slumping down on the rock, and attempting to sleep, he pushed the hat on his head down so he could cover his eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beth turned her attention back to the woods, keeping quiet so then she could hear if anything came near. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Any particular reason you chose me to stay with you?”, Negan said, “you like having me around?’ he grinned. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beth gave him a judgmental look, “I wanted Carl to rest, and..”, she turned to face him, “I need to talk to you”. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Negan let out a heavy annoyed sigh, “Let me guess, something about Hershel.”, he gestures to the sleeping little boy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beth rolls her eyes, “It's about Maggie.”, she whispers sternly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, thats fucking great”, he cheered rhetorically, “What about her now?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Completely disregarding Hershel. What are you going to do about Maggie?”, Beth asks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean?”, He questions, leaning on a tree. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She doesn't forgive you. With Rick gone, Maggie may or may not try something.”, Beth mummers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you think she will?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know.” Beth mumbles. “I think she's changed er..I think, maybe, slightly.” She utters. She stays quiet for a while. “Remember when she went to kill you? She had told me you begged her to kill you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Negan cringes at the memory, “Yeah, what about it?” he asks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She had told me that she had every intention to kill you. She said she swore to herself she would. But when she came back she said that after hearing you and seeing you </span>
  <em>
    <span>weak</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and thinking what I had told her-”. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Negan interrupts, “Wait, what did you tell her?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beth pauses, letting out a sigh, “I told her, killing you won’t bring Glenn back, it would just make us more like you.” Beth says, facing towards the ground. “I just want us to be more human, killing people just leads to people wanting revenge, then someone else would want revenge for that person. It's a loop.” She states. “I think we should break that loop”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That's a good dream, but nowadays killing others is the only way to survive. I mean with the whispers could you really think we would have solved that without killing them?”, Negan questions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beth bites the side of her cheek, “Well, I still think it was good that they let you live.” She smiles weakly. “I just don’t want anyone to die anymore”, she says in a low tone. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They stay quiet for a minute or two. “You can sleep.”, Negan offers, “I’ll keep watch”, he sighs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beth nods her head, sitting next to little Herschel who was snoring softly.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>Carl lifts his head, from the dirt ground, an aching pain emerged from his neck and back, </span>
  <em>
    <span>fucking uncomfortable sleeping position</span>
  </em>
  <span>, he cusses. To his surprise he sees Negan. Still up and awake, he turns to see Beth nestled with Hershel, both sleeping peacefully. He smiles slightly at the sight. Turning his attention back to Negan he asks, “Never slept, huh?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nope.” Negan says, <em>you can tell he’s tired. </em></span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Take a nap or something”, Carl says, standing up, “I’ll take watch for right now.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Negan slumps down on the tree he was leaning on, “I probably won’t be able to sleep.”, he complains.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carl rolls his eye while pulling out his knife. </span>
  <em>
    <span>God, he’s going to listen to Negan complain all morning isn’t he?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He did.</span>
  </em>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Good thing they’re on the move now. But Carl felt a little unsettled the whole day. Maybe it was because he had slept uncomfortably and he's just paranoid, but there's something gnawing at him in the back of the head that's keeping him more alert. He heard a snap behind him, quickly turning around, only to see nothing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Carl?”, Beth asks. His attention moves towards her. “Are you alright?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I just thought I heard something..”, he murmurs making his way towards Beth. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’ve been walking for half of the day now, still, through the forest they haven't found a trail to follow so they were just walking straight forward. Out of nowhere a bird flew out in front of Negan. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jeez, What the hell?!”, He cussed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Calm down. It's just a bird”. Beth said nonchalantly walking ahead of him, Herschel by her side. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carl snapped his head back again, </span>
  <em>
    <span>theres something fucking following them.</span>
  </em>
  <span> “Hey guys”, he called.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?”Beth responds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stop.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She stops walking and turns around to face him, “huh?”, “Why-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carl cuts her off, “Just stay quiet.” he says swatting his hand to signal the other two to be quiet as well. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The woods weren’t silent, there was a distinct rustling in the ground that signaled something was there. “It's probably a walker.”, Herschel whispered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Probably is.” Carl noted, drawing his knife from his pocket. But something caught him off guard, the rustling stopped. That isn’t a walker. That's a </span>
  <em>
    <span>fucking</span>
  </em>
  <span> person. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who's there!”, Carl hollers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Carl, I doubt its a per-”</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>“We don’t mean no trouble.”, The voice responded, the voice was a strong southern action, it was a males voice. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beth’s eyes widened, Herschel froze, Negan was shocked, and Carl’s grip tightened on his weapon. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can put down the knife.”, A voice behind them spoke, causing the four to jump. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Shit, there were two people? </span>
  </em>
  <span>She was a woman, her voice was scrappy and she was wearing a mask covering her mouth and nose, and a bulky vest was warped around her. “We’re not going to hurt you.” The woman coos, her eyes fixated on Hershel causing Beth to put herself in front of him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How many of you are there?”, Carl sapt, still not lowering his knife. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Four”, another voice spoke. The guy had a mask covering his entire face, his voice was slightly muffled and he was wearing all black. This was when they realized they were surrounded by the four. The man with a southern accent, the woman with a scrappy voice, the man who was dressed with all black, and another man who had-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Fuck.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He had a gun.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“We won’t hurt any of you. Just do what we say.”, The man with the gun said, “You well’ight listen to a man with a gun.” He says, clicking the weapon, pointing it at Carl. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you want?”, Beth asked, her voice shaky. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The woman gestures at Hershel, “the boy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now, what the hell would we give him to you?”, Negan snapped hostily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man with the gun grins, “oh c’mon the kids probably trouble. See this as we’re taking a burden off ya.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s my nephew you freak. You’re not taking him.” Beth nearly yelled. Her facial expression filled with disgust and anger. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“One way or the other we’re gonna take him.” The man with the strong southern accent said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Over my dead body!”, Beth countered.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>There was a gunshot. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The man with the gun had fired, but he was tackled by Carl so the bullet didn’t harm anyone. The women went to grab Hershel but Negan is quickly able to punch her in the face causing her to collapse. The man who was covered in black went to attack Negan, but Beth stabbed him on his shoulder causing him to turn around and yank her arm throwing her to the ground. The man who originally had the gun was thrashing in Carl’s grasp, until Carl grabbed his knife and stabbed him right in head. The man stopped moving. Carl heard Beth scream, quickly turning around to see Negan dealing with the women and the other man, and the man dressed in all black was twisting Beth’s arm trying to reach the gun. Carl kicked the gun from his reach and stabbed his right in the eye to earn a blood curdling scream emerging from the man’s mouth, Carl swiftly yanked his knife from the man’s eye and aggressively started stabbing him in the head, until he stopped fighting and his body fell to the ground. Negan’s knife was kicked away from one woman who was trying to stab him with her own dagger, he was busy choking the other man as the women kept trying to stab him. He let go of the man, he fell to the ground trying to gather his air. As he was able to grab the woman from her hair and whammed her into one the tree’s. He took the knife from her hand and stabbed it right in the head, causing her lifeless body to slump to the floor. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carl was busy checking on Beth, “Beth, Beth wake up!”He called, his voice panicked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he was busy with Beth he didn’t realize that he had dropped his knife, the man who had been choked by Negan grabbed the knife about to stab him and Carl quickly turned around to see the man holding the knife about to strike him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>There was a gunshot.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Carl’s eye widened. As the dead men fell to the ground, behind him was </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Hershel.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Holding the gun. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>After everything that happened, the group decided to just settle down where they were. Carl was covered with blood, they all were, but he had the most. Negan dragged the dead bodies somewhere else. Making sure they were all shot in the head, Well at least they now had a gun though it only had 5 bullets. Hershel had been silent the whole time, he didn’t say a word. His face was still shocked. Beth was able to wake up and she didn’t let go of Hershel; they were holding hands the whole time. Beth had dislocated her arm but Carl was able to snap it back, it was just sore now. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They were sitting around the fire Carl made, all four were silent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I killed someone”, Hershel said shaky. Breaking the silence. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It was bound to happen at some point.”, Carl mumbled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span><strong>“I’m never telling mom.”</strong>, Herschel mentioned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, don’t she would freak out.” Beth says, her hand on her forehead.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Does that mean I’m strong?”, Herschel asks</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kid, you were tough before you ever killed anyone.” Negan said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beth and Carl nodded in agreement, causing Hershel to smile slightly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beth scoots closer to Hershel, “Yeah, and when the time comes we’ll tell your mom. But don’t tell her when we find her, we'll wait a little bit.”, Beth says, pulling the boy into a hug. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay”, Herschel answers, laying his head on Beth’s chest. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Me and Negan will keep watch.” Carl says, “I don’t want anyone else getting hurt.” he said. The three nodded in agreement. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>WAS IT GOOD- YES HERSHEL GOT AHUMAN KILL BFGUDGKVDFKYS</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. 𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘛𝘰 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The four run into someone from their old group whos more than happy to take them back to the others, Beth has to deal with a stubborn Hershel. Carl tells Michonne about the new walker herd.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Its bad but is the end-</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They were on the move again, they haven’t eaten in about two days. It was almost a surprise none of them have collapsed yet. Carl turned around to see Hershel holding Beth’s hand swinging it lightly. He turned his direction back to the front, smiling slightly. It was good that Hershel seemed a little better, after everything that escalated he worried that he would be scarred by the events and when Maggie saw him she would freak out. But Beth has been taking care of him, she’s sweet and responsible like that.</p><p>“We should probably look for some sort of food,”Negan said, making his way beside Carl.</p><p>Carl nods in response, taking his hands out of his pockets. “You need some new clothes", he mentioned, gesturing at Carl’s shirt that was still covered in blood from yesterday.</p><p>The one-eyed boy frowned, “That's not a main problem right now.”, “Lets just camp here for a bit, you and I will look for food.'' Carl announces, turning to Beth and Hershel.</p><p>“Ok, just don’t take too long.”, Beth said</p><p>“We won’t”, he answered, pulling his knife out and signaling for Negan to follow him. Deeper into the woods, the sound of rustling leaves got louder as the two looked for some sort of food. There was a tree branch snap.</p><p>Quickly Carl snapped his gaze towards the sound. “Whos there?!”, he hollered, <em>they just dealt with a group he didn’t want to deal another fucking group of assholes.</em></p><p>“Show yourself!”, The slightly high pitched voice called.</p><p>Wait.</p><p>“Judith?!”Carl called, lowering his knife. “Is that you?!” He said, trying to make his way towards the voice that had called. Negan followed him, just as shocked as Carl was, that they had found Judith.</p><p>The girl made eye contact with the one eyed boy sprinting towards him, she basically threw herself at him, “I missed you!” she yelled, tightening her grip around his waist.</p><p>“I missed you too,”Carl smiled.</p><p>“Negan’s with you too?” Judith asked, turning to him. “Is Beth and Hershel with you as well?” she questioned.</p><p>“Yes, yes they are.”, Carl said, wiping the tears that had started coming from his eye. He takes a hold of Judith’s hand, “I’ll take you to them”. The three head back to the camp.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>“Beth! Herschel!”Negan called, alerting the two to get up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Judith?!”Beth shockingly said. “You’re here! Do you know where everyone else is?”Beth asked, taking a hold of Hershel's hand and hurriedly making her way towards Judith, Carl and Negan. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Judith nodded, “Yes, we have camp not far from here.”, She said, waving her hand in direction. “So come one!”She pulled Carl to her direction, “Let’s go!”</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>They walked for what felt like miles, or could have just been that the four were exhausted. With no food, and barely any water they were on the brink of collapsing, at least Beth was. Her throat felt so dry and she was so tired, <em>Don't worry we're </em></span>
  <em>
    <span>almost back to the others</span>
  </em>
  <span>, she kept telling herself. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aunt-Maggie was probably the most freaked out.” Judith said, “She got even angrier when she found out Beth was gone, and so was Negan.”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Negan rolled his eyes slightly at the mention of Maggie. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How’s Rj, and mom?”Carl asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They’re fine, we were able to make a mini camp and we’ve been staying there for a while.” the little girl responded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They reach a sort of fence that has cans hung on string. “Mom!”Judith called. There was rustling of leaves.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Judith, where were you I thought I told you-”, Michonne was cut off as eyes widened at seeing Carl. “Carl!”She cried immediately running to hug the boy, “You're ok!” she said. It was an emotional moment finally getting back with the group after what felt like months. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Michonne, what's wrong”, Maggie said, making her see Beth and Hershel, she froze. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mom!”Herschel cried, sprinting towards his mother, Maggie immediately crouched down to hug him, Beth followed and also received a hug from Maggie. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re ok, you’re ok.”, Maggie repeated in a whisper, still holding Beth and Hershel close to her. “Are you alright? How long has it been since you two have eaten?!”, Maggie worriedly said, observing how thin they looked. Their cheeks were slightly sunken in, and their collar bones were more prominent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on, we have food you guys need to eat,'' Michonne said, signaling for all of them to follow her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They reached deeper to the camp to see everyone else, Lydia, Carol, Daryl, Rosita and everyone else. It brought a smile to the four, finally seeing the group again. “Here’s some soup.” Maggie said, handing a bowl to Carl, followed by someone else behind her who was bringing more food. “Just take your time”, she said.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carl sat down on a log, </span>
  <em>
    <span>was it great that they’re back to the others? Yes, but there's a few problems. Mainly with Negan and Herschel. It was quite obvious Maggie was pissed though she’s good at hiding it, when she gave the soup to Negan he swore he saw her give him a death glare.</span>
  </em>
  <span> He lets out a sigh, </span>
  <em>
    <span>he’ll deal with the problems later, he just wants to eat right now. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Beth was sitting Next to Hershel, Herschel was in between her and Maggie, she could see Maggie was happy now that Hershel was back, but she could see Maggie’s eye darting towards Negan every few seconds as if she was suspicious he would do something. Beth felt like rolling her eyes at her sister’s actions, but </span>
  <em>
    <span>she completely understands why. But heck, if she brings up if Negan got close to Hershel…</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>She’s gonna lie </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>A LOT</span>
  </em>
</p><p><em><span>So apparently being back at camp doesn’t solve all the fucking problems, </span></em><span>Negan cussed to himself. </span><em><span>Beth and Carl had mentioned to him more than enough times that Maggie. Would. Be. Pissed. </span></em><span>He didn't think much about it though,</span> <span>but now he regrets that, he probably should've come up with some sort of plan</span><em><span>. Boy, does Maggie keep giving him the fucking stink eye. </span></em><span>He lets out a heavy sigh. </span></p><p>
  <span>“What problems stirred between the four of ya?”Daryl asked, cutting Negan out of his thoughts. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maggie keeps giving ya the stink eye.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Ah, so it's obvious</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did ya do somethin’ to Beth and Hershel?” Daryl questioned. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What? No. Why would you think that?”Negan snapped slightly, trying to keep his voice low. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maggie’s staring at him, </span>
  <em>
    <span>god this women watching him like a fucking hawk.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll tell you later.”</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>Beth walked around the camp, looking for Carl. He was probably with Judith, but right now Hershel was with Maggie so she was sort of bored.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Looking for someone?”Daryl asked. Beth's attention turned towards him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, yes! Have you seen Carl?”, She asks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s with Michonne and Rj, why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shrugged, “Just wondering..”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daryl realized how Beth’s pose was sort of tense, it made him think if Negan had done something to the three of them, they seemed as though they were keeping something from them. “Did he hurt you?”, Daryl asked in an almost whisper.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beth’s eyes widened, “What? Who? Who would hurt me?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daryl raised an eyebrow at her, “If something happened you can tell me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She stayed quiet, fumbling with her fingers. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Beth I ain’t stupid, I know you're hiding something.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beth put her hands on her hips, “I guess I see no point in keeping it a secret.”, She said. The girl took a deep breath, “Hershel got close to Negan while we were lost, and I feel like if Maggie finds out she's only going to hate Negan more.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why? Did Negan hurt Hershel?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, but you know how my sister is, she doesn’t want Negan 5 inches near him.” she retorts. Her shoulders slump,“I just..”, she began, “I just want Hershel to leave Negan alone. But I want to do it without him knowing why.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Daryl quiet, “So ya want to keep Hershel as oblivious as possible to the whole situation”. He says, folding his arms. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well…”, She chuckles, “Yeah, that's what I want.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll help.”</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>As Rj was resting on Carl's lap, he felt finally at peace. They’ve been looking for the group so long that this was just a time to relax, well that's what Carl wanted. But even after dealing with the walkers not even a few weeks ago, he, Beth, Hershel and Negan had run into another herd, and he distinctly remembers that for some reason that walkers had metal caps on, a type of armor that made them more difficult to kill. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He let out a heavy sigh, as Michonne entered the tent, “Something on your mind?” she asks, setting down her katana. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah”, Carl starts sitting himself up, “There was sort of a problem that we ran into..”. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Michonne sits herself on the floor, “What happened?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There was a walker herd.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How many?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know, maybe a few dozen.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That's not really much compared to the last one.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, but these walkers had some sort of armor.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Armor?”, She asks, her face scrunching up slightly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, their head was covered with a metal cap, it was more difficult to kill them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did you kill any of them?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, not really we kinda just ran in the other direction”, he laughed nervously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Michonne’s face softened, “We’re going to try to move from this area, so maybe those walkers won’t be a problem” she, getting up from his sitting position, and pats Carl on the head. “As long as you're not hurt,'' she smiles.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carl grins back. “Yeah”</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>“Maggie?”, Beth whispered, creeping into her sister’s tent, where she saw Maggie, reading a book with little Hershel lying next to her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes?”Maggie answered, her eyes averting to Beth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was just wondering If I could talk to Hershel for a while Beth gulped. She felt nervous as if her sister was suspicious of something. It made her feel a shiver of fear run down her spine. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Goddammit, control yourself Beth! </span>
  </em>
  <span>She cussed to herself. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maggie frowned slightly, “Hershel, you go and talk to Aunt-Beth and come back when you're done”, she told the boy sweetly, pressing a kiss to his forehead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Herschel nodded and walked to Beth. She took his hand, and they both walked out of the tent. “Are you happy you're back with your mom?”, Beth asked</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah!”, he beamed, slightly swinging their hands, “Can I ask you something?”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why is Negan avoiding me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Shit. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She knew he would bring it up at some point but still it was unexpected. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s not avoiding you. He just has other things to do.”, Beth said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like what?”, he asks letting go of her hand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, work around the camp. Everyone has their part to do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re lying, right?”, it's quiet for a bit, Beth doesn’t know what to say. What will she say? She sure as hell can’t tell him the truth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not lying.”She said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So can I tell mom, I want to talk to Negan-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“NO! No,no,non”, Beth blurts out</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why not?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because, b-because...Just no. Not now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hershel, I want you to do me favor.”, Beth says, Herschel nods, “I want you to never tell your mom about any interaction you have had with Negan.”. The boy scowls at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why?”, he asks again, his voice somewhat stern.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just do what I say, ok?”, “Please?”, she asks, her voice nearly pleading. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The boy looks at his shoes, he nods. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Herschel hears something quickly snapping his head towards that direction, it's almost as if his face lights up seeing Negan. Beth clears her throat to catch his attention mouthing the words ‘no’. He squints his eyes at her clearly not giving shit anymore why Beth won’t let him talk to Negan.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey!”, Herschel yells quickly making his way towards Negan. The man turns around to see Hershel behind him with a gleeful smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“HERSHEL!”, Beth nearly yanks him to her. She put herself in front of him, “I tell you to do something, you listen to me! Understand?”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Beth its fine-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No!”She cuts Negan off, “You are not interfering with this, understand?!” She left both boys shocked. Everyone knows that Beth is the gentle type so seeing her quite pissed off is something frightening. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hershel just glares at Beth, “Herschel-”, Beth reaches for Hershel, but the boy swats her hand away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Leave me alone! What can’t I be his friend, what has he done that's so bad? Why won’t anyone tell me?!”, He yells.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He..'', Beth pauses for a while. “I can’t tell you.” she mutters.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe if you tell me, that I’ll understand why not to talk to him.”, Hershel notes, folding his arms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I-I Please-”, Beth begins stuttering out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hershel.”,A southern voice calls behind him. “The hell are you talking to Beth like that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Daryl, its fine-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go back to your mom”, He scolds. The boy glares at him, but he wouldn’t dare speak back to someone as intimidating as Daryl. Hershel huffs, stomping his away leaving the three alone. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kids got some nerve talking to his family members like that.”, Daryl grunts</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well you don’t have the right to talk to him like that.”, Beth says pushing her way past Daryl to follow Hershel. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That your fault?”Daryl asks, looking at Negan.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey I was just walking, kid came out of nowhere.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kids attached to ya.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah..”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’ll be a big fuckin surprise when he finds out.”, Daryl says, stuffing his hand in his pockets.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t go there.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’ll happen.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Negan gives him a strained smile, “Just not right now though.”</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <em>
    <span>The whole day was stressful.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Beth lets out a heavy sigh looking at her hands, the group was sitting around the fireplace. However Maggie insisted that she had something important to do, but she knew that the second she heard Negan was going to be there she bailed out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry”, she hears the little boy murmurs who was sitting criss-cross-applesauce beside her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t be..”, she says, turning to him giving a gentle smile. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You won’t tell me why not to talk to Negan, but can I at-least sometimes talk to him?”, the little boy asks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carl was behind the two, and he heard what Hershel said. He stands up and makes his way to the two and sits himself right next to Hershel. “Why do you want to talk to him?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beth raises her eyebrows at Hershel, “He’s my friend.” Herschel states.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carl nods. “You can talk to him sometimes.”, he says.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Carl!”, Beth says in nearly shock.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But!”, raising his index finger, “you can only talk to him when your mom isn’t around, and when either me or Beth is with you.”, he says, booping Hershel right on the nose.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The little boy giggles, “Ok!” he smiles.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, Herschel”, the three turn around to see Kelly. “Your mom asked to see you.” she said. “I’ll take you to her.” She said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ok, I’ll see you two tomorrow,” Hershel says, standing up, and hugging Beth dismissing himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beth slumps down, “Thanks for dealing with Hershel, he was a big drag today.”, she says putting her hand to her face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carl chuckles, “Well, he is a kid.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah”, Beth looks over across the fire and she sees Negan talking with Lydia, “Maggie’s never going to forgive him.” she says blankly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, she never is.”, he scoots closer to Beth, “But that problem is for another day.”, he says tuning to her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She giggles slightly, “Well at least we're <strong>back with the others</strong>,” she says, taking a hold of his hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carl smiles, “yeah”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I don't know if this was good or not :/ I've had the idea for a long time, but it isn't as great as I thought would be</p></blockquote></div></div>
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